Julio Rodriguez

​Julio is Deputy Director of the Office of Employment and Training (OET), which is responsible for the management and oversight of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), a federal program administered by the State of Illinois.   Illinois receives over $140M from the US Department of Labor for the program. Under Julio’s leadership for the last 19 years, OET has met or exceeded performance, developed nationally recognized sector-based training initiatives, secured 50 million additional federal dollars to support new model programs, developed training policy to increase the number of individuals receiving industry recognized credentials, and led a design team that launched a very successful online initiative - Illinois workNet - to expand and integrate the use of new technology tools into the local workforce system.